Professional Practice

Fire Safety

Over the last couple of months I've been working on a number of short films for the North Wales Fire Service. The aim of the films is to provide fire safety advice. There are 5 films in total, an overview of each of them is given below:

Fireman
This film is set at a student party. The living room where the party is taking place is full of cups, glasses and bottles of alcohol. There's lots of laughter, music and dancing. One of the drunken revellers grabs a fire extinguisher and fire blanket (which he wears as a cape) and climbs onto a table. He then lets off the fire extinguisher over the other students. A tea towel is left next to the cooker and another partygoer turns on the hob and then goes to the bathroom . Inevitably the tea towel catches on fire, they try to escape but the exits are blocked. The scene fades and the tagline for this story is shown 'Leave it to the real heroes' with a picture of the fire safety budda.

Dick and Fanny
The scene for this one is a kitchen. Dick is cooking a sausage and egg for Fanny who is sitting at a table. Other characters are dressed as a sausage, egg and Mr Fire. Dick becomes distracted by Fanny and stops watching the food. Mr Fire then enters the scene and kicks things over causing a fire. Dick panics and try to stop the fire by throwing a bedsheet over it. This only makes the fire worse, Fanny therefore dials 999 and she ends up carrying Dick out of the flat.

The tagline for this film is 'Don't be a damsel in distress! Get out, stay out!

Seven deadly sins
As the title suggests this story is based on the seven deadly sins. It begins with a man having an argument on the phone whilst cooking. He throws his phone, it hits some cooking oil which falls over and catches fire.

A description of each of the stories is below:

1. Wrath - The man who was cooking leaves the kitchen and goes into another room. When he closes the door of this room the word 'Wrath' is displayed on it.
2. Lust  - A couple are in bed, they hear the fire alarm but choose to ignore it.
3. Pride - In another room a girl is looking at her face in the mirror and shows no concern for the alarm as she's more interested in putting her make up on.
4. Sloth - A boy is asleep in bed, he looks groggy rolls over and goes back to sleep.
5. Gluttony - A person is in a kitchen snacking, they hear the alarm but also choose to ignore it.
6. Avarice - A man is outside the accommodation, he can hear the alarm but can't see too much smoke. he decides to enter the building to rescue his belongings.
7. Envy - The person in the green hoody from the beginning of the film is outside the building, the fire alarm can be heard. the camera focuses on the back of this person who has the word 'envy' on their back. 

The films ends with the words 'Don't be left in Envy' and then 'Get out, stay out, call 999'.

Don't invite Death to the party
This story begins with a loan figure (aka Death) walking towards a house. You then see a person that is smoking in bed whilst watching the television, this person then falls asleep. Death's shadow falls upon the door as the bedroom door opens.

The scene changes to a kitchen where a cook is filling up a chip pan with oil from a large bottle, he turns up the heat and then gets distracted and walks away.

Another room is shown where a number of candles are lit but they're close to some low hanging curtains. After lighting the candles the person leaves the room unattended.

In another scene a gamer has too many gadgets plugged into an extension socket. The camera pans across all of the equipment and finally rests on the gamer themselves. There's then a shot of Death behind the game with his Scythe raised ready to strike.

We are then taken back to the candle room where the candle lighter blows them out before Death has an opportunity to strike. He walks of dejected. In the kitchen the gas is turned off before a serious fire can start and in the bedroom the cigarette is put out with water thrown on it, both leaving Death disappointed.

The film ends with Death walking away from the house, head lowered and dragging his scythe. The tagline for this film is 'Don't invite Death to the Party'.

Fire Safety - Miss Flame 1963This film is set in the 1960's and is based on a student television show called Mrs Burns' Hot Topics. In this episode the show is hosting 'Miss Flame 1963'. Three contestants are brought on each of which has a burn injury on a different part of their body. They each explain how it happened.

i) Janet Match shows off a distinctive burn on her face. There is a brief flashback showing she got hers from falling asleep drunk with a lit cigarette.

ii) Beatrice Singe has a burn on her arm. This happened whilst cooking after a few too many drinks.

iii) Lola Inferno shows a burn on her neck. There's another flashback showing that she was burnt whilst lighting a candle after drinking and then falling asleep next to it.

Mrs Burns ends the show by saying "Well, well. There we have it ladies and gentlemen. Three very silly girls (laughs). If you would like a burn like these ladies, why don’t you act a bit irresponsible. If not remember this, TURN IT, BLOW IT AND STUMP IT OUT. The decision in yours. Good day"

The film fades out with the Fire Department logo and 'Buddha Character'.

I've really enjoyed working on these films, the actors were brilliant. I've worked on camera, sound man and also lighting so have gained a good range of experience that will be great for my cv.

Printpod

Printpod is a design agency and high-quality printers based in Huddersfield. They provide value for money with environmentally friendly print and design.

I was given the opportunity to provide them with an animated logo for their Facebook page. This is the first which has an animated wheel.

This is 'Printpod to Sand':

I enjoyed creating these logos as it was a good opportunity to work in After Effects and use a particle system.